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WRESTLING 101: Don’t Forget Where You Came From

Let’s face it. No promotion is perfect, and there are logically peaks and valleys depending on available talent, schedule, and the unfortunate injury bug. It’s no wonder athletes and talent tend to occasionally lose interest along the way. No one loves what they do 100 percent of the time.

It’s moments like this one should go old school.

Recently, Huracanrana and I found ourselves in one of those valley periods, hostage to the identity crisis of independent wrestling in uncharted talent exchange waters. We unintentionally went to the past to rekindle our passion of present.

As any student of pro wrestling knows, each athlete’s career is its own unique tale of character evolution, adjustments based on age/body type, and promotion mandated re-inventions. Thus, tracking any veteran pro wrestler during this journey will yield a treasure trove of insights and lessons on how to survive along the way.

In revisiting Ring of Honor and TNA from decades ago, we began to appreciate the wrestling world around us. Samoa Joe’s genius became more evident. Christopher Daniels’ creativity blatantly apparent. Amazing Red’s…well…amazingness. How every good match seemed to feature Low Ki in it. AJ Styles was once a man mountain(!)…the Briscoes clean cut grapplers extraordinaire…? Chris Sabin’s remarkable transformation, also Jack Evans’ brilliance literally from day one. The grace, the artistry, the pacing and storytelling. Todd Sinclair was always that entertaining wearing stripes.

Dozens of hours of new memories in the wrestling memory bank, we were again reminded why we created this site. Also that the valleys served as invitations to create new peaks.